Re 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name
written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF
THE EARTH.

(Un-edited Notes)

Because of the events of the past weeks as the death of the
pope, electing of a new pope and how some Christian leaders and the news media
have praised the pope, my heart is grieved and it is my duty as the pastor of
this church not to compromise but to defend the gospel of Christ.

We saw in our last two sermons the sign of the end of the
ages given by our Lord was deception and increase of deception of false
religions, cults and apostasy. The word apostasy means to fall away from the
truth of the gospel. In Revelation chapter 17, we find the master deception.

One thing to understand that this book is not written in
Chronological order, meaning the events does not come after the other chapters.
We see in Revelation chapter 13 and 17 speaking of the beast. Chapter 17
reveals the beast and chapter 13 already got rid of the beast. God had made the
divisions. There is a blessing to those who read this prophecy.

Re 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the
words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for
the time is at hand.

1﻿And
there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with
me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the
great whore that sitteth upon many waters:﻿2﻿With whom the kings
of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have
been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.﻿3﻿So
he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit
upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads
and ten horns.﻿4﻿And the woman was arrayed in purple and
scarlet color, and decked﻿a﻿
with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full
of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: ﻿5﻿And upon her forehead was a name
written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF
THE EARTH. ﻿

Verse 1)

1﻿And there came one of
the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto
me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that
sitteth upon many waters.

The seven vials or the seven bowls contains
the last plagues. Read Revelation 15:1.

Re 15:1And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels
having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

This is dealing at the very end of time.
This fulfillment is not found in history nor in the present but in the future,
but the fulfillment is just before the second coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ.Today in our present day are
seeing things getting shape up, as we have never seen before.

Come hither, I
will show thee.

Come hither, means
an urgent invitation, come now! An urgent invitation to the true believer from
God as only the true believer is given to see the will of God to see what this
chapter contains.

I will shew unto
thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.

Here we see the judgment,
meaning indictment, and the damnation that is going to come for the great whore
that sits upon many waters. Who is the great whore that sits upon many waters? Obviously,
this cannot be taken literally but symbolically.

In verse 3, we
read. . ﻿3﻿So he carried me away in the spirit into
the wilderness.

In order to see
the whore John was taken into wilderness. Carried me away in the spirit.
Carnal man cannot understand, you need to be in the spirit. Wilderness is sometimes a symbol of
separation in order to know the will of God. Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist
and our Lord were led into wilderness.Only the people who are separated unto God can understand this prophecy.
Many cannot understand as they are already in this apostate system.

Here we see a
woman. There are two symbolic types of women in the Bible.

1. Woman is a
symbol of the church.

The church, under the figure
of a woman, is first espoused, and then presented, as a chaste virgin to Christ.
"I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ." (II Corinthians 11:12.)

The church is the
true woman, the bride of Christ, the Lamb's wife.

2. The other woman
is the counterfeit woman; a woman who is professing to be the wife but she in
reality is a prostitute and a harlot.

The woman who
sites on many waters is called a whore.

The word whore is porne in Greek; our word Porn or
pornography comes from this word. This has to do with sexual indulgence,
immorality, and sexual fornication. This woman is a whore means she is a
harlot, a prostitute who has committed adultery.

As I said before this is a symbolic meaning. The woman who
is a harlot is a system of apostasy.

We see in the Old Testament the children of Israel were
called symbolically the wife of the Lord.

Jer 3:1They say, If
a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall
he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted? But thou
hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith
the LORD.

But we see when they committed spiritual adultery God called
them a harlot and a whore.

Eze 16:28 Thou hast played the whore also with the
Assyrians, because thou wast insatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with
them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.

This woman is sitting on many waters. What do you mean by
waters here?

Re 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest,
where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

Re 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city,
which reigned over the kings of the earth.

In the Bible the bride of Christ, the church of Christ is
called a holy city. The true woman is the church and also it is called a city.

Re 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

So here, we see both the woman and the city is the symbol of
the true church of Christ.

But there is another woman, the counterfeit woman; the
harlot is also called a city in verse 18. She is a great city. It says, the
woman whom you saw is that great city. This is in present tense, in John’s
time. The only great city of the world in John’s time was Rome. Rome was the capital
of the world. So her identity was not difficult to find.

She sits on many waters, the waters is a symbol of peoples,
and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.She is not sitting on one location but universal. There is another word
for universal and that is catholic. The city is Rome and this woman is the
Roman Catholic Church, the master counterfeiter.A professing church but in reality a whore, a harlot.

Let us see some of the examples of past popes and you can
see very clearly, what I mean.

Pope
Symmachus (498-514) was a
fornicator. A regular lover, named Conditria and cheated the fund of the
church. Italian bishops discussed the charges of fornication and cheating of
money. But came to the decision that as pope no human court could try him.

Pope Sergius (in office 687-701) who wanted
to become pope so badly that he offered a bribe, one hundred gold pieces, to
the emperor's representative to Italy.

Pope Stephen VII (VI) (in office 896-897).
He charged his predecessor (Pope Formosus) who was dead. Trial was arranged
against Pope Formosus who was dead, they dug out his dead body and he was
charged guilty, of coveting the papal throne. The corpse was stripped and the
three fingers of its right hand chopped off. The body was then finally flung
off into the River Tiber.

John XII (in office 955-964) was the person
who initiated the tradition of changing names upon elevation to the throne. He
went after every woman he could find. He was reputed to have slept with his
niece, his father’s ex-lover and even his own mother! He died the way he lived;
from a heart attack while making love to a married woman.

Pope Gregory IX (in office 1227-1241).
Gregory was the pope who established the infamous Inquisition. In 1231, Gregory
extended the legislation against heretics making them liable to the death
penalty, which at that time, was to be burnt at the stake. In fact, the death
penalty became mandatory for those who were condemned by the Inquisition
for heresy.

Pope Sixtus IV (in office 1471-1484)

He was involved in murder and he was
dragged into war. Rome's financial resources were drained due to the war.
Sixtus was the first pope to license the prostitution in Rome; prostitution
brought a large income to the papacy. He introduced the of sale of indulgence
for the dead. Thus living relatives of the dead, eager to help their loved ones
in purgatory dug deep into their pockets to reduced the dead’s suffering.

Pope Innocent VIII (1484-1492) illegitimate
children by marrying them off into princely families.

Alexander VI (in office 1492-1503) both
before and after he became pope had countless number of mistresses through
which he fathered at least ten children.

Leo X (in office 1513-1521) The city of
less than fifty thousand had seven thousand registered prostitutes! A large
part of his income also came from the licensed brothels in Rome.

Pope Julius III (in office 1550-1555) a
lover of pleasure, a glutton and a heavy gambler.

Pope Alexander VIII (in office 1689-1691)
with the rise of Protestantism, pope’s behavior began to improve.

Luther saw the immorality of the Roman
church when he visited Rome, Luther said if there be a hell Rome is
built over it.

She is a seductress. The seat of the seductress is Waters.
She is sitting on the people of the world. You go to any country and you will
see world wide universal influence of Roman Catholicism.She is sitting on them, she is comfortable
sitting on peoples of the earth, here we see she is oppressing them, lording
over the people instead of serving them.

She is called the whore. Seductress, a woman who seduces
people with her man made doctrines and even the very kings of the earth commit
fornication with her. The kings of the earth are rulers and leaders of the
earth.

The Roman Catholic Church is an institution of vast importance
to politics from the very beginning. Constantine the Roman emperor regarded
himself as the head of the church. It was called the Holy Roman Empire. The
popes were engaged in war, Kings borrowed money from the popes; Rome has much
influence with the kings of the earth.

You saw when Pope John Paul II died how all the world
leaders attended his funeral including President George W. Bush and his wife.
Bush was the first U.S president to attend a funeral of a pope. He said, “He
said the services that brought kings, presidents and pilgrims from across the
globe to Rome was a "powerful and moving reminder of the profound impact
this pope had on our world." (CNN.COM April 9,
2005)

Verse 2. Look at her influence; the inhabitants of the earth
made drunk with the wine of her fornication, meaning people were made drunk of
her sins. Her influence is worldwide influence and for evil. Spreading sin,
abominations where ever she goes.She seduce
them with wine, with false doctrine, false worship. When a man is drunk, the
man believes anything, losing the senses, man believes a lie and believes the
woman. You heard when you are trying to witness to a Roman Catholic they say,
“I am a born Catholic and die catholic.” They are drunk; they have been seduced
by the harlot of Rome.

Verse 3-4) ﻿So
he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit
upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads
and ten horns.﻿

The seven heads are seven mountains.

Re 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven
heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

Seven Hills of
Rome The hills upon which the ancient city of Rome was built, including the
Palatine (traditional site of the founding of the city), Aventine, Caelian,
Capitoline, Esquiline, Quirinal, and Viminal hills.

The heads are the symbols and the heads are the explanations
of the mountains, literal mountains. It gives a very clear picture of the
geographical location of the woman.

Beast supports the woman.

This harlot the Roman church is sitting on a beast. Who is
this beast? See verse 8.

Re 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and
shall ascend out of the bottomless pit.

The beast you saw was once, meaning once in existence. Then
it says and is not, meaning it was existence in the past. Then it says the
beast shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, meaning the beast will come back
into existence.

For us to understand we need to read Daniel.

This scarlet-colored
beast is identical with the fourth beast of Daniel's vision. Daniel says:
"After this I saw in the night visions, and, behold, a fourth beast,
dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it
devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it; and
it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten
horns."

An angel explains
the vision to Daniel: "Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be the
fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall
devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And
the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise."
(Daniel 7:23, 24.)

Speaking of four great world empires, the fourth is the
Roman Empire. It existed in the past but no more but it will ascend again out
of the bottomless pit.When the Lord
comes in the second time, the fourth empire is back in existence and the Lord
will crush that empire. We can see in our day how these things are beginning to
take shape.

The man does not know the Bible will say this is a good
thing but the man who knows the Bible see this is from hell.

This beast gives the support to the woman. The beast will
use its power to exalt the woman; the world is going to see the great world
church the only church.

4﻿And
the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked﻿a﻿ with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her
hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

The distinctive
color of the woman is scarlet. Rome’s cathedrals, Notre Dame at Paris, the
statue-pointed cathedral at Milan, Saint Peter's at Rome, and you will find
gold, silver, pearls, and all precious things. You will find all kinds of gifts
from kings, from emperors and queens; offerings from the richest of earth,
wealth enough to make even kings envy.

Look at this
church filled with gold, with silver and precious stones, and you will find
that its official color is scarlet, scarlet in the hat of its cardinals,
scarlet in the robes of its pontiff and priests, scarlet everywhere - a
scarlet-colored church.

What was the color you saw during
the funeral of pope John Paul II? The color of scarlet. Here I am holding Los
Angeles Times see the picture of the dead pope and cardinals and the color is
scarlet.

Why it is scarlet?

Remember just
before the crucifixion of Christ.

Mt 27:28 And they
stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.

They mocked him as
the king, the Messiah. But this woman arrayed with purple and scarlet color is
an expression of her authority and power.

This scarlet-clad
woman is drunk with the blood of saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of
Jesus. (Verse 6)

It is the picture of the Roman Catholic,
that in the name of Christ, causing the martyrdom of true saints, and thirsting
after their blood till and she is drunken by it. It happened in history and a day
is coming again that she will persecute the true woman the bride of Christ, the
church, this woman will drink the persecuting of God saints as a man drinks the
taste of wine. She will be intoxicated with the martyr’s blood.

Professor Arthur
Noble writes the following.

“The
crusade of Pope Innocent III against the Albigenses in 1208 was a war of
extermination, lasting for several years, and was one of the bloodiest in
history. We recall the persecution of John Wycliffe, the "Morning Star of
the Reformation", and the martyrdom of William Tyndale, who gave the
English people the Word of God in their native tongue. So bitterly was Wycliffe
pursued by his Papal foes, that his very bones were exhumed, burnt by the
Church of Rome, and their ashes scattered on the river Swift. We remember the
burning at the stake of the Czech Reformer John Huss by the Council of
Constance in 1415, which in spite of the Emperor's guarantee of safe conduct
declared that "faith need not be kept with heretics"! The death of
Huss was followed in the next year by the martyrdom of Jerome of Prague, also
by fire. Savonarola was put to death at Florence in 1498, because he fearlessly
denounced the wickedness of Pope Alexander VI, and earnestly sought the
reformation of the Church. In the 30 years between 1540 and 1570 no less than
900,000 Protestants were put to death by Papists in different countries of
Europe. During the four-year reign of Pope Paul IV (1555-59), the Inquisition
alone destroyed 150,000; when he died, the people of Rome crowded to the prison,
broke open the doors, released 1,700 prisoners and set fire to the building. In
England 300 Protestants were burnt in three years by the Romanist Queen
"Bloody Mary", 17 of them being the famous Lewes Martyrs. In Paris,
on St. Bartholomew's Day, 1572, 30,000 Huguenots, "the flower of
France", were massacred at the command of Pope Pius V, who so rejoiced at
the news that he had a special 'Te Deum' sung and a medal struck, inscribed
with his name and the words 'Strages Ugonotorum', "The Slaughter of the Huguenots".
The Duke of Alva's "Council of Blood" cruelly destroyed thousands of
faithful Christians in the Netherlands: for the success of this crusade the
Pope earnestly prayed, and sent the Duke a "consecrated" hat and
sword. During no less than thirty persecutions, the blood of the noble
Waldenses was shed in the valleys of the Piedmont, and yet they heroically kept
the faith. For 300 years, the horrendous Papal Inquisition spread terror over
Europe. In Spain, alone 31,000 persons were burnt alive and 291,000 imprisoned.
It is estimated that in the sixteenth century no less than 900,000 Protestant
martyrs laid down their lives for Christ. Even in this twentieth century, which
boasts of "enlightenment", the Church of Rome still persecutes. Pope
Pius XII was an arrogant and cunning fanatic who helped Hitler to power,
blessed Mussolini's troops and colluded with the Nazi Ustashi in Yugoslavia in
slaughtering 250,000 Orthodox Serbs, many herded into churches and burned
alive; his priests also forcibly converted over a million of them to Roman
Catholicism.

Since the
rise of Popery 50,000,000, people had been put to death in various ways for
their religion by the end of the 19th century. [Documented in The
Protestant Echo, July 1, 1903.] These figures make the atrocities of Hitler or
Phol Pot look like a Sunday school picnic.”

The Roman church not only
committed fornication herself, but also has made the inhabitants drunk with the
wine of her fornication. Fornication in the book of the Revelation signifies
idolatry, and idolatry is - image worship. This woman is a church, which practices,
and has taught the people of the earth to practice, idolatry, to engage in the
worship of images. Visit the churches of Rome and you will find them full of
images, images of the virgin mother, and images of the saints.

Verse 4 says, the woman is decked
with gold and precious stones and pearls. This shows her outward beauty, the
look of holiness but inwardly rotten, corrupt and filthy.

Jesus in his days called these
people by saying the following.

Mt 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto white sepulchers, which indeed
appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all
uncleanness.

28 Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within
ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

In verse 4, the woman having a golden cup in her hand full of
abominations and filthiness of her fornication.

Jer 51:7 Babylon hath been a
golden cup in the LORD'S hand that made all the earth drunken: the nations have
drunken of her wine; therefore, the nations are mad.

The golden cup is the external
worship of splendor but filthy idolatrous worship. Also, the Roman church
performs mass with a golden cup.

Verse 5) And upon her forehead was a
name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND
ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. ﻿

This professing church of Christ, the woman
has a name written on her forehead, it is called a MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.